Preferred Pictures Research Articles

A prospective cohort study assessing differences in cosmetic appreciation of lateralization while smiling in patients with a peripheral facial palsy

ABSTRACTWe investigated the differences in cosmetic appreciation of patients with a left and a right peripheral facial palsy (PFP) while smiling. Smiling pictures of patients with a facial palsy with House–Brackmann II–VI were reversed as a mirror image and offered as a pair of pictures, together with the true image. Twenty-six patients with a PFP and 24 medical professionals familiar with facial palsy were asked to choose the most attractive photograph. Patients rated their own pictures. Medical professionals preferred pictures of patients with a right and left PFP in, respectively, a mean of 43.00 ± 12.25% and 57.00 ± 12.28% (p = .005). Patients with a right PFP chose their mirror and true image in 65% and 35% in smiling pictures (p = .01). Patients with a left PFP facial palsy chose their mirror and true image in 58% and 42% in smiling pictures (p = .02). The House–Brackmann score and age of the patients did not influence preferences of medical professionals and patients. We have found that medical professionals have a significant preference for pictures of patients with a left PFP. Patients with a left PFP and right PFP significantly prefer their mirror image in smiling pictures.

Valuation of Go Stimuli or Devaluation of No-Go Stimuli? Evidence of an Increased Preference for Attended Go Stimuli Following a Go/No-Go Task

Attentional inhibition that occurs during discrimination tasks leads to the negative evaluation of distractor stimuli. This phenomenon, known as the distractor devaluation effect also occurs when go/no-go tasks require response inhibition. However, it remains unclear whether there are interactions between attention and response controls when the distractor devaluation effect occurs. The aims of this study were to investigate whether attention to stimuli in the go/no-go task plays a facilitative role in distractor devaluation through response inhibition, and to clarify whether this effect reflects a decreased preference for no-go stimuli. Participants evaluated the preference for pictures before and after a go/no-go task. In Experiments 1 and 2, they made a go or no-go response depending on the category of pictures displayed (gummy candies or rice crackers), whereas in Experiment 3 they did on the basis digit category, even or odd numbers, superimposed on such pictures. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that the pictures presented as no-go stimuli in the preceding go/no-go task were evaluated as less positive than the pictures presented as go stimuli. This devaluation effect reflected an increased preference for the go stimuli but not a decreased preference for the no-go stimuli. Experiment 3 indicated that response inhibition did not affect the preference for the pictures that had not received attention in a preceding go/no-go task. These results suggest that although attention plays an important role in differential ratings for go and no-go stimuli, such differences, in fact, reflect the valuation of go stimuli.

Effects of Implied Motion and Facing Direction on Positional Preferences in Single-Object Pictures.

Palmer, Gardner, and Wickens studied aesthetic preferences for pictures of single objects and found a strong inward bias: Right-facing objects were preferred left-of-center and left-facing objects right-of-center. They found no effect of object motion (people and cars showed the same inward bias as chairs and teapots), but the objects were not depicted as moving. Here we measured analogous inward biases with objects depicted as moving with an implied direction and speed by having participants drag-and-drop target objects into the most aesthetically pleasing position. In Experiment 1, human figures were shown diving or falling while moving forward or backward. Aesthetic biases were evident for both inward-facing and inward-moving figures, but the motion-based bias dominated so strongly that backward divers or fallers were preferred moving inward but facing outward. Experiment 2 investigated implied speed effects using images of humans, horses, and cars moving at different speeds (e.g., standing, walking, trotting, and galloping horses). Inward motion or facing biases were again present, and differences in their magnitude due to speed were evident. Unexpectedly, faster moving objects were generally preferred closer to frame center than slower moving objects. These results are discussed in terms of the combined effects of prospective, future-oriented biases, and retrospective, past-oriented biases.

Comparative evaluation study of the websites of China-based and international luxury hotels

ABSTRACTPractitioners in the hotel industry constantly seek ways to improve their online and offline presence to improve their competitiveness and profitability. Consumers from different countries differ in their preferences for color, pictures, navigation, and site structure, which affect the performance of hotel websites. To connect industry efforts with consumer requirements, this study adopted a website usefulness framework to compare the websites of China-based luxury hotels with those of international luxury hotels. A fuzzy model was applied to analyze the data collected from online users. Findings of this study will be utilized to assess the perceptions of Chinese and international users and to compare the performance of the websites of China-based luxury hotels with those of international luxury hotels. Results show that Chinese and international consumers significantly differ in their perception of the usefulness performance of China-based and international luxury hotel websites.

A Study for Visual Realism of Designed Pictures on Computer Screens by Investigation and Brain-Wave Analyses.

In this article, the visual realism of designed pictures on computer screens is studied by investigation and brain-wave analyses. The practical electroencephalogram (EEG) measurement is always time-varying and fluctuating so that conventional statistical techniques are not adequate for analyses. This study proposes a new scheme based on "fingerprinting" to analyze the EEG. Fingerprinting is a technique of probabilistic pattern recognition used in electrical engineering, very like the identification of human fingerprinting in a criminal investigation. The goal of this study was to assess whether subjective preference for pictures could be manifested physiologically by EEG fingerprinting analyses. The most important advantage of the fingerprinting technique is that it does not require accurate measurement. Instead, it uses probabilistic classification. Participants' preference for pictures can be assessed using fingerprinting analyses of physiological EEG measurements.

Cue Recognition and Integration - Eye Tracking Evidence of Processing Differences in Sentence Comprehension in Aphasia.

PurposeWe aimed at further elucidating whether aphasic patients’ difficulties in understanding non-canonical sentence structures, such as Passive or Object-Verb-Subject sentences, can be attributed to impaired morphosyntactic cue recognition, and to problems in integrating competing interpretations.MethodsA sentence-picture matching task with canonical and non-canonical spoken sentences was performed using concurrent eye tracking. Accuracy, reaction time, and eye tracking data (fixations) of 50 healthy subjects and 12 aphasic patients were analysed.ResultsPatients showed increased error rates and reaction times, as well as delayed fixation preferences for target pictures in non-canonical sentences. Patients’ fixation patterns differed from healthy controls and revealed deficits in recognizing and immediately integrating morphosyntactic cues.ConclusionOur study corroborates the notion that difficulties in understanding syntactically complex sentences are attributable to a processing deficit encompassing delayed and therefore impaired recognition and integration of cues, as well as increased competition between interpretations.

How directional change in reading/writing habits relates to directional change in displayed pictures

ABSTRACTIt has been suggested that reading/writing habits may influence the appreciation of pictures. For example, people who read and write in a rightward direction have an aesthetic preference for pictures that face rightward over pictures that face leftward, and vice versa. However, correlations for this phenomenon have only been found in cross-cultural studies. Will a directional change in reading/writing habits within a culture relate to changes in picture preference? Korea is a good place to research this question because the country underwent gradual changes in reading/writing direction habits, from leftward to rightward, during the 20th century. In this study, we analyzed the direction of drawings and photos published in the two oldest newspapers in Korea from 1920–2013. The results show that the direction of the drawings underwent a clear shift from the left to the right, but the direction of the photos did not change. This finding suggests a close psychological link between the habits of reading/writing and drawing that cannot be accounted for simply by an accidental correspondence across different cultures.

Enhanced visual exploration for real objects compared to pictures during free viewing in the macaque monkey

The question of whether animals perceive pictures as representation of real objects remains still unsolved. Object-picture perception is generally studied requiring animals to learn some information about real objects and transfer that knowledge to the pictorial domain, or vice versa. Here, we tackle the issue of object-picture perception from a different perspective, examining visual exploration behavior of two naïve macaque monkeys during free-viewing of objects and pictures of these objects on a computer monitor. Our main finding is that monkeys looked spontaneously longer at object rather than picture stimuli. However, we find striking similarities in temporal dynamics of gaze allocation within the time course of a single stimulus presentation, as well as in habituation rates within and across behavioral sessions. We also highlight differences between stimulus types in terms of spatial gaze patterns and looking strategies. Stimulus features that attract overt attention during spontaneous visual exploration are thus better predicted for object stimuli by a visual saliency model. Moreover, we provide evidence for a consistency in stimulus preference for objects and pictures, suggesting a correspondence of in how macaques perceive objects and their pictorial stimuli. Taken together, our data suggest that macaque monkeys exhibit evidence for correspondence between objects and pictures. This validates spontaneous visual exploration as a method for studying object-picture correspondence without a need for extensive behavioral training. We discuss the potential advantages of using object over picture stimuli in the context of studies on visual cognition.

P152 What kind of information do patients want to see in sexual health clinic waiting rooms?

<h3>Background/introduction</h3> All sexual health clinics have noticeboards and leaflets in their waiting rooms carrying a range of information, but little is known about the kind of information patients find most useful. This survey was designed to gain insight into the type of information patients most prefer to see in order to enhance patient experience. <h3>Aim(s)/objectives</h3> To conduct a patient survey of preferences for information provided in sexual health clinic waiting rooms. <h3>Methods</h3> 133 consecutive patients attending the integrated clinic were asked to complete a simple questionnaire covering the following areas: (1) how much attention is given to the information available; (2) Which types of information are most useful; (3) Preference for pictures, written text or a combination; (4) Importance of information that can be taken away. <h3>Results</h3> 53% looked at most of the information, 32% only read what looked interesting or relevant while 15% took little notice. Facts about STI’s were the most useful (64%), followed by prevention messages (51%), contact details of other organisations/services (49%), information about local/national campaigns (41%) and boards with specific themes (e.g. Valentine’s day, Fresher’s Week) (33%). 55% preferred a combination of pictures and text, 41% mainly text and 37% mainly pictures. 74% attached a high importance to information which could be taken away. <h3>Discussion/conclusion</h3> 85% of patients paid significant attention to the information presented in the waiting room. Patients found factual information about STI’s to be most useful followed by prevention messages. There was a clear preference for messages that combined text with pictures.

Lessons Learned From Adolescent Mothers: Advice on Recruitment.

Adolescent mothers have high rates of depressive symptoms and inadequate rates of depression evaluation and treatment. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify characteristics of effective recruitment ads for an Internet-based depression intervention for pregnant and parenting adolescents. Using focus group methods, participants (N = 35) were recruited and enrolled at a teen parent program, part of the public school system. Focus group sessions were analyzed for participant preferences, rationale for choices, key words, and the frequency of words within the videotapes and audiotapes. Findings indicated that adolescent mothers preferred pictures in which everyone looked happy, narrative that clearly indicated cost and eligibility, and words that they would use in conversation. The study filled an important gap in the literature by soliciting from pregnant and parenting adolescents their preferences regarding visual appeal, content adequacy, and message clarity of advertisements that would motivate them to visit an Internet intervention for depression. Results could be extrapolated to education of pregnant and parenting adolescents in clinical settings.

L2 Vocabulary learning : Lexical Route of L1 Translation &amp; Conceptual Route of Visuals

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of providing definitions by Korean translation or by visuals in terms of comprehension and retention, based on the Hierarchical Bilingual Model (Kroll & Stewart, 1994). Korean translation was employed to represent the lexical route, whereas pictures were used to mediate the conceptual route in this model. Experiments were conducted with two groups at a high school in Korea. Each group received one of the two treatments in this two-phase crossover experiment New English words were defined in accordance with one of the two methods: by Korean translation, or by picture with a brief description in Korean. Regarding comprehension, the results of the tests showed that the lexical route of Korean translation was more effective than the conceptual route of pictures. When asked their preference for the way in which definitions were provided for comprehending new words, the participants indicated that they preferred Korean translation to pictures. In contrast, with respect to retention, the tests indicated that the conceptual route of pictures was more effective than the lexical route of Korean translation. When further asked about the preferable way of defining words to allow remembrance, the participants preferred pictures to Korean translation, though the difference was not significant. This study implies that new English words should be defined considering both comprehension and retention, because only providing one type of definition does not satisfy the requirements for both comprehension and retention. In other words, the lexical route should be accompanied with the conceptual route when defining new English words in an EFL context.

Diminished P300 to physical risk in sensation seeking

Zuckerman's theory proposes individual differences in optimal arousal and arousability level as the root of the sensation-seeking trait. The current study addressed how sensation seeking influences responses to emotional arousal at the electrophysiological level during a passive viewing task and at the psychometrical level during a self-assessment task. Electrophysiologically, high sensation seekers (HSSs) compared to low sensation seekers (LSSs) exhibited a reduced P300 for high-arousing stimuli (adventure and surreal pictures), but not for low-arousing stimuli (leisure and neutral pictures). Psychometrically, HSSs displayed a higher preference for adventure and surreal pictures whereas LSSs showed a higher preference for leisure pictures. Instead of supporting the optimal arousal hypothesis, these findings suggest that sensation seeking is associated with diminished P300 to physical risk, which may be driven by a hypoactive avoidance system in sensation seeking.

Social visual contact, a primary “drive” for social animals?

Social animals are always searching for conspecifics, thereby expressing a genuine "social need". This need is illustrated by the fact that social isolation can induce isolation syndromes that can be attenuated by devices such as mirrors. Social contacts appear to be so vital for social animals that they may be ready to work to obtain social stimulations. We used operant conditioning to investigate the possibility to use visual contact (through pictures of conspecifics) as a primary reinforcer. Isolated European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) were offered the choice of seeing either social images (i.e. pictures of conspecifics) or non-social images (i.e. pictures of landscapes or pictures of monkeys) by triggering sensors. In contrast with most studies, our subjects were presented still pictures of conspecifics and not videos. Moreover, these pictures were used as primary reinforcers and thus were not paired with food. Our data show that starlings were ready to work and to use the apparatus (i.e. sensors) to see pictures in the absence of any other reward. Moreover, they actively and significantly preferred pictures of conspecifics to pictures of inanimate objects (landscapes) or of heterospecifics (monkeys). This suggests that 2D pictures with a social overtone can be used as primary reinforcers for isolated social birds.

子どもへの関心尺度の得点と幼児の画像への選好との関連

Correlations between the scores on subscales of the Scale of Interest in Infants and preferences for pictures of infants were investigated. University students (N=27) completed the Scale of Interest in Infants. Then they were shown arrays of three pictures of an infant, an adult, and an object and required to choose the picture that interested them the most. The results indicated that pictures of infants were chosen more often than pictures of adults. Positive correlations were found between scores on the subscales for “affectionate attention” or “curiosity” and preference for pictures of infants. “Sympathy” and “tolerance” were not significantly correlated with preference for pictures of infants.

The effect of ethnicity on different ways of expressing cardiovascular treatment benefits and patient decision-making

The way information is presented to communicate risk and treatment benefit affects patients' understanding and perception of their risk and can influence their decisions. To assess the effect of ethnicity on patient preferences for different ways of expressing risk and treatment benefits. Using tailored questionnaires, we surveyed Ma¯ori , Pacific and Indian peoples of known CVD risk to assess format preferences encouraging them to take medication or assist their understanding of possible treatment benefits. Statistical analysis determined any association of ethnicity with patient preferences. Of the 376 participants, 50% identified as New Zealand (NZ) European; 15% Maori ; 25% Pacific and 10% Indian ethnicity. Patients preferred positive framing of risk (66%). Relative risk was the format reported as most encouraging to take medication and to understand risk, with natural frequencies least preferable, although Pacific people significantly preferred natural frequencies (p<0.0001) compared with other ethnic groups. The majority (55%) preferred pictures to numbers for explaining risk. Ma¯ori , Pacific and Indian participants significantly preferred 100-people chart formats over bar graphs compared with NZ Europeans/Others (p=0.002). Most (68%) preferred doctors to give their opinion on taking medication instead of explaining risks using numbers and/or pictures. Pacific and Indian peoples significantly preferred doctors to make decisions on treatment compared to NZ European/Other and Ma¯ori participants (p<0.0001). Ethnic differences in patient preferences for communication formats and decision-making should be considered when tailoring effective communication in primary care. However, individual preferences cannot be presumed and a combination of methods should routinely be used.

Perception of intensity of sperm competition on the part of males

Preferences for certain pornographic themes are hypothesized to have been influenced by our evolutionary history, where sperm competition could play a significant role. The mating system in our australopithecine ancestors, as well as in modern human societies, however, suggests that polygyny (characterized by low risk of sperm competition) has predominated over multi-male multi-female mating systems where high sperm competition is expected. In this study, a sample of men (N=96) was investigated for their preferences for sexually explicit material showing low (sexual interaction with three women), moderate (one man and one woman) and high intensity of sperm competition (one woman and two men). The participants showed a strong and highly consistent preference for pictures showing moderate and low intensity of sperm competition. These preferences were not influenced by sociosexuality, pornography consumption or attitudes toward pornography. It is suggested that these preferences may mirror psychological adaptations for sperm competition which are activated when the risk of cuckoldry is high. Certain circumstances, where preferences for cues associated with high intensity of sperm competition would be adaptive, are discussed.

How Young Children Evaluate People With and Without Disabilities.

How do preschool-age children evaluate people with disabilities, and does social contact make children more positive toward those who are different from them? To answer these questions, typically developing 3- to 5-year-old children completed tasks designed to measure their social preferences for, and judgments about the actions of, unfamiliar individuals with and without disabilities. Participants preferred pictures of typically developing children over children in wheelchairs, but did not prefer children who were described with disabilities over those who were described with mildly negative facts. In a third task, participants evaluated actions that violated norms more negatively than those that did not, regardless of whether the actors had a disability. Children's participation in inclusion programs did not appear to affect their responses. We consider possible explanations for children's responses - including the absence of social contact effects - in the discussion.

What I like is How I Am: Impact of Alexithymia on Aesthetic Preference

Aim of this work was to explore the impact of alexithymia on art works appreciation, to examine the influence of emotion regulation on art judgment. While observing a painting, the viewer's cognitive structure contains several types of information (semantic, episodic, and strategic) and is the repository of personal traits, motivations, and emotional dispositions that are involved in this interaction. The study of how personal traits influence work of art appreciation, and especially the study of the way emotion regulation impacts on art judgment, was aimed at improving the comprehension of the aesthetic experience costruct. One hundred adults, divided into 2 groups (high and low scores in alexithymia), observed 20 works of art and were then asked to give an evalutative judgment on three dimentions: cognitive, emotional, aesthetic. As hypothesized, the two groups had significant differences in their aesthetic preferences. Although subjects without affective regulation disorders preferred excitation related pictures, subjects with alexithymia appreciated works evoching emotions of pleasure inhibition. These results confirm the impact of personality traits on aesthetic preference and support the need to include emotional regulation in a comprehensive model of aesthetic experience.

Ideas versus labor: What do children value in artistic creation?

As scientists, we primarily award authorship, as well as legal patents, to those who generate ideas, often without formally crediting others who executed the actual experiments. However, little is known about how and when people come to value ideas. Here, we investigate whether young children also value ideas over labor. In Study 1, we found that 4 and 6year olds preferred pictures containing their ideas to those containing their labor. In Study 2 we rule out an alternative explanation—that children simply favor pictures containing their idiosyncratic preferences—by discovering that 6year olds, but not 4year olds chose a picture they mistakenly believed contained their idea, over a picture that contained their idiosyncratic preferences. Consistent with these results, using a third-party design in Study 3, we found that 6year olds, but not 4year olds favored a person who only contributed an idea over another who only contributed labor in awarding ownership. Across three studies, these results suggest that by 6years old, children value ideas over labor.

Do reading habits influence aesthetic preferences?

We tested the idea that the directionality of a person’s primary writing system has influences outside the domain of reading and writing, specifically influences on aesthetic preferences. The results of several previous studies suggest that people whose primary writing system goes from left to right prefer pictures of moving and static objects that face right over their mirror images that face left. People whose writing system goes from right to left, in several studies, prefer pictures that face left. We attempted to replicate these findings by testing Bahraini users of Arabic ranging from 2nd grade through 12th grade. Bahraini participants preferred right-facing pictures rather than those that faced in the direction of their writing system, and this preference was somewhat stronger in older students than in younger students. As expected, US fourth graders preferred right-facing pictures. There was no statistically significant difference between them and Bahraini fourth graders. Our results call into question the idea that the directionality of people’s primary writing system influences their preferences for pictures.